Zach Motl: No, my last apartment was 178 square feet, and I live on a sailboat on summer weekends— the ultimate small space.

Where do you hide your pillows?

In the closet, which is about 25 square feet. I hide everything in there. My clothes. Bike helmet. Shoes. Luggage. Bills. Old tax forms. Things that relate to work. The vacuum cleaner. Laundry. The closet helps a lot.

Your apartment is the size of a two-car garage, yet every corner seems zoned, practically with its own ZIP code. What’s your small-space philosophy?

It’s about making one room feel like five. It’s about how you arrange the furniture, and how the pieces play off one another. The bed is in its own little niche; I call that the bedroom. The office is where my desk is, and the desk is opposite the bed, so the room feels balanced. The books are in another cor- ner—you could say that’s the library. Everything has to fit like a puzzle. It’s also about the reveal. I created an entry hall with the screen, so when you walk in, you don’t see everything at once.

Talk about ruthless editing.

You have to edit! Every once in a while I go through a manic state where I throw stuff out, or store it. I have a sweater addiction, but this is it. My closet is maxed out. For a while I had 50 or 60 vintage National Geographics, and the stacks were beau- tiful, but they came to feel like curated clutter. If something doesn’t work, it’s got to go. I bought an amazing neoclassical daybed, three-quarter size. It was elegant, but too tall—it blocked too much win- dow. I tried to love it there. I even whitewashed it to make it airy, but it had to go.

Invention and salvage are style trademarks for Zach Motl, a window designer at Ralph Lauren’s Madison Avenue store. The daybed in his Brooklyn studio is an assemblage of two Ikea Malm twin beds—he used the headboard and rails of one bed, substitut- ing the footboard with the headboard of the second bed. A street-find library table sawed in half yielded the slim console. Thomas O’Brien Longacre sconces, Visual Comfort.

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I count seating for about 10. Is it party-friendly?

I had 37 people here for a holiday party! I removed one chair—it went in a friend’s apartment upstairs—and people congregated in the kitchen and by the fireplace. When they’re mingling, you’d be surprised how many people can fit.

Name the best piece you own.

I love my tuxedo-arm sofa. I got it at the Brooklyn flea market and had it reupholstered in a wool herringbone. The shape is hard to find, and it’s on casters. It’s modern, but it’s classic.

What about the stripped-down modern daybed?

I made it from two Ikea Malm beds. I used one com- plete twin bed with its headboard, and for the other end, just the headboard from the second bed. It’s very Parsons-style, very Jean-Michel Frank. And cheap—the beds were on sale for about $79 each. Spill some storage secrets. Those baskets under the bed are for electrical supplies and a hammer and glue gun. It’s a toolbox, but spread out. I keep files and papers in boxes under the desk. I built a bathroom cabinet in the space vacated by an old metal hamper. And I have a car in New York as well, which is great for small-space living. My sewing machine is in my car.

Normally “an addict of color,” Motl knew that a “crisp, clean, light” backdrop was key to expanding the space. He finished the floor with white stain; it practically flows into the white walls and melts into the Ralph Lauren Home sisal and Ikea flokati rugs. The low-slung chrome chair with linen back is from Beall & Bell, with a vintage blanket folded on the seat. “Chairs help define a space,” Motl says, “both for seating arrangements and personality."

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What’s your solution to the detritus of daily life— keys, eyeglasses, the remotes?

Put it out. Put it on a tray, like I’ve done with my eyeglass cases—multiples look interesting. Arrange it. Make it look like it’s serving a purpose, and all of a sudden it’s elevated.

One has the immediate sense of a floor-to-ceiling bay window, but one would be wrong. how did you achieve that effect?

I ran the blinds floor-to-ceiling, but any decorator would do that. To have a blind sit on the sill with a foot and a half below it would look bizarre. And curtains should always go up as high as they can. It is a bay window, it’s just missing the middle. I was really annoyed—like, where’s my window? But the photo is of a tree, so it creates the illusion that you’re looking through a window to the outside.

Why does plaid speak to you so strongly? Wouldn’t white curtains create a more seamless envelope?

This apartment was an experiment in neutrals, and neutrals do make the space feel larger—I never feel boxed in—but totally white is not my style. I love plaid very much, and the dark color anchors the room. If I showed you pictures of this window area before, without the curtains, it’s super-blasé. I needed a dark color at the windows, too, because I sometimes work nights installing window dis- plays and may come home at 6 a.m. A light-colored curtain wouldn’t block the sun as well.

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Has window design taught you any tight-space lessons?

It has taught me to always measure before I rush out and buy something. There were times we’d have sets built, and all of a sudden you’re out in the street at four in the morning, cutting a set apart with a jigsaw or a Skilsaw to get it in the window.

Did you install the crown moldings and that unusual diagonal floor?

No, in fact I was enchanted by how original the apartment was. The crown moldings were here, the fireplace, the old doors, the diagonal floor. I pickled the floor, though. I skim-coated. I replaced all the light fixtures. In the kitchen I put up beadboard, laid a travertine floor, and replaced the cabinets and countertops. And this is a rental. I spent too much, but you have to do it. It’s where you live.

Because large electronics might visually consume the studio, Motl slid his TV under the desk.

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You renovated a rental! Does your landlord know?

He thinks I’m crazy, but he liked it. We’ll see if I get my security deposit back.

What haven’t I asked you?

You haven’t asked me how I make do with a twin- size bed. My friends were like, ‘There goes your sex life’—but I beg to differ. It’s really cozy.

A George Nelson Saucer Pendant from Design Within Reach floats over the studio like a full moon. Over the desk—an industrial steel workbench from Totally Bruce—Motl hung a painting by Claire Read as a counterweight to the visually heavy curtains.

For extra stat- ure beneath 101⁄2-foot ceilings, Motl brought the kitchen beadboard all the way to the upper cabinets. Ramsjö base cabinets and rectangular Metrik door handles are from Ikea; the uppers are original, with doors removed. Lithograph by Malcolm Morley.

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Motl found the vintage Italian chairs at the Brimfield flea market and left their marigold paint intact. He salvaged the table, repainting its top white.The “Be Calm” tea towel is by Louise Bourgeois.

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Products on display in an open, notched-in bathroom cabinet must be “little things of beauty.”

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Motl rescued the architectural model from the trash. Antique dresser from Totally Bruce, a vendor at Brooklyn Flea.

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Large photos by Alex O’Neill; small trio by Irving Penn. Parsons bookshelf, West Elm.

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The flea market sofa is in a wool herringbone tweed from Mood Designer Fabrics. To corral remotes and sundry items, Motl bought an inexpensive tray from Pearl River and painted it black. On the coffee table, a display of nostalgia.

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